It’s a good question. The old adage, “You get what you pay for” rings true in most cases.

When it comes to gear though, sometimes we do end up paying a premium for the brand name. In these cases, dollars spent don’t always translate to better results.

But how do you know for sure before you make the purchase decision if something is actually a great value or a cheap-o piece of junk? Luckily we have the internet for that!

For example, one of the coolest (and under-viewed) review videos done on our products last year was the one above, shot by Griffin Hammond, in which he puts the Rode NTG-3 shotgun mic up against ourSGM-250CX.

Now, the NTG-3 retails for $699 and Rode is a well known audio brand name. With this in mind you may be thinking: Surely the NTG-3 must sound better than the Azden SGM-250CX that only costs $199.

Well, not so fast. Watch the video and listen. Can you hear the difference?

For those of you still reading I’ll spoil it for you: it’s really hard to tell the difference. In fact it’s nearly impossible. But of course we would say that, right?

We’re not the only one’s who think so. Just look at the comments. One viewer said:

“I put headphones on and volume up, I wanted so badly to hear that the NTG3 was outperforming the Azden but it simply wasn’t. I couldn’t hardly hear a difference. Thank you so much Griffin for letting me find this video before I went out and wasted $500.”
– H.L. Hammons

We’re not just blowing smoke when we say the SGM-250CX Compact Cine Mic is a great value! It has a professional sound at a great price point. It comes with a high-quality shock mount made for cameras or boom poles (the NTG-3 comes with a mount that’s really for a musician’s mic stand) and already has an attached XLR cable (the NTG-3 come’s with no cable at all).

Plus its short length makes it practical for mounting on cameras, especially cinema cameras with ring clamp mounts. But if you’d rather boom it, you can do that too.

If you’re in the market for a shotgun microphone, check out the SGM-250CX. We’re pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

And if a traditional length shotgun microphone is more your speed, we have two other mics in the line: the SGM-250 and SGM-250P. They have just slightly different features but, here’s the kicker: they sound exactly the same as the 250CX.

Full disclosure: We did provide the microphone to Griffin at no cost but he received no compensation from us for this review. Ultimately, he was allowed to say whatever he wanted about our product and this video conveys his true and honest opinion.